SMART Seminar Series

March 13 @ 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Presenter – Prof David Levinson

PROF DAVID LEVINSON

Prof. David Levinson teaches at the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney (official profile), where he leads TransportLab and the Transport Engineering group. He earned his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, and taught for many years at the University of Minnesota.

Evolving and Designing the 30-minute City

Abstract

The 30-minute isochrone has long defined people’s use of cities, from ancient times, through the trams era, to modern times. Networks and land use co-evolve with technology subject to the constraints of available time. There are opportunities (low-hanging fruit) to use design to reduce the costs of travel. This talk discusses both the measurement of accessibility, why it matters, and how it might affect traveler behaviour, institutional behaviour, and public policy. Looking at data from rail and tram development in Sydney from the 1800s and Australia today, implications about the effects of accessibility are described.